A young man when he went into hiding, Matteo Messina Denaro is now 60. He was convicted of dozens of murders and faces multiple life sentences.
In this handout image provided by the Carabinieri, Matteo Messina Denaro is transported in a van after he was arrested In Sicily, on Jan. 16, 2023, in Palermo, Italy. No. 1 fugitive, Matteo Messina Denaro, a convicted Mafia boss who ordered some of the nation’s most heinous killings, was arrested Monday at a private clinic in Sicily after three decades on the run, Italian paramilitary police said.
He was the last of three longtime fugitive top-level Mafia bosses who had for decades eluded capture, and hundreds of police officers over the years had been tasked with tracking him down. Reminded by the judge that he must answer truthfully, Messina Denaro replied: "Aware." When asked his occupation, he replied "farmer" and added that his brother was a banker and his four sisters homemakers.
Monday's arrest came 30 years and a day after the Jan. 15, 1993, capture of convicted Mafia "boss of bosses" Salvatore "Toto" Riina, in a Palermo apartment after 23 years on the run. Messina Denaro went into hiding in the summer of that same year, as the Italian state stiffened its crackdown on the Sicilian crime syndicate following the murders of Falcone and Borsellino.
But Messina Denaro, besides staying in hideouts in Sicily, also traveled abroad while a fugitive, including to Marseille, the French port city, where he underwent surgery some years ago, according to investigators.
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